Telephone companies have long offered directory assistance service. A typical caller dials a special number, such as “411” for directory assistance. Often the caller who requests assistance is connected to an operator. Recent advances in voice recognition systems permit 411 services to connect the caller to a voice recognition computer. The computer has a store of digital files, including prompts for the caller. In response to information provided by the caller, the voice recognition system either identifies the requested subscriber phone number or passes the call to an operator.
The operator and the voice recognition system have access to one or more computers that store the telephone numbers for local and long-distance subscribers. Subscriber telephone numbers are stored in accordance with subscriber data. Such data includes the name of the subscriber and the subscriber location including street address, city or town, and state. After the 411 service acquires the requested phone number, the number is usually automatically announced to the caller. The announcement is a computer-generated voice signal that gives the caller the requested subscriber phone number. Advances in directory assistance technology allow the directory assistance equipment and its caller to interact. Now a caller can choose to let the directory assistance equipment automatically place the call to the requested phone number. The announcement directs the user to press a specified key on the telephone pad or say “yes” if the user wants the directory assistance equipment to dial the number. Often there is a charge for automatic connection.
After a customer pays for directory assistance, the customer may manually make a permanent record of the desired number in a personal directory. The directory may be a book, part of a personal organizer, digital assistant, or in a database that stores information on a computer. Some frequently called numbers may be stored in the telephone where they can be selected for speed dialing. Selecting a programming key on the telephone to access the feature normally activates a conventional speed-dialing feature. Then the desired number is dialed into the telephone and becomes associated with an abbreviated dialing code. When the user wants to call the desired number, the dialing code for the desired number is dialed instead of the actual number. The telephone set generates a series of DTMF tones that correspond to the desired number.
If the customer fails to make a permanent record of the desired number, he may have to make a second directory assistance call to find the number. Personal directories can be lost or the data stored in a personal organizer or digital assistant may be accidentally deleted. Telephone sets with speed dialing have limited storage capacity. Perhaps as many as twenty numbers can be stored on a telephone. However, the information in a personal directory and the speed-dialing ability of one phone is useless if the customer does not have his directory or is away from the programmed telephone. For example, the customer may forget to take his personal directory on a trip. Again, the customer is faced with placing a directory assistance call to acquire the desired number.